James Gill
There’s always some fuss over the idea of an opera company presenting operettas, but many are eminently worthwhile, and we constantly have Die Fledermaus, don’t we?
The point will be raised anew when UW Opera presents Sondheim’s Into the Woods later this month. Meanwhile, we have scintillating testimony from the Madison Opera in its production of Sondheim’s A Little Night Music, which opened Feb. 8 at Overture’s Capitol Theater.
Based upon Ingmar Bergman’s movie, Smiles of a Summer Night, it explores the joys and complexities of love, as fumbled through by four couples over one weekend, under the scrutiny of a skeptical former courtesan.
Operetta connections are evoked by composer Sondheim’s casting all but one of the musical numbers in 3/4 waltz time, many with wonderful tunes.
But it is Sondheim’s lyrics that really explore and exhilarate. In his amazing cleverness with words, Sondheim is matched only by W. S. Gilbert — yes, of Gilbert & Sullivan.
There are 15 roles in the piece, and seven of performers have not appeared in previous Madison Opera casts. They are all quite able singers, some outstanding. I was most impressed by the voices of Jeni Houser (Anne Egerman), Daniel Belcher (Fredrik Egerman), Emily Glick (a saucy Petra), Katherine Pracht (Countess Charlotte), and Charles Eaton (Count Carl-Magnus). And American Players Theatre veteran Sarah Day is wonderfully droll as the aged Madame Armsfeldt.
The acting is uniformly snappy, but not all the singers are as successful in the spoken dialogue, because of variable diction. Singers were discreetly amplified, but without compensation for the different volumes between singing and speaking. Supertitles were given for the musical numbers, but not, alas, for the dialogue.
The direction by Doug Scholz-Carlson is resourceful. I was not fully pleased with the quirky scenery, composed of panels constantly moving, up and down, back and forth. They facilitate the rapid scene changes and the entries and exits groups of performers, as well as separating the action (if not always) from the orchestra, which is placed at the rear. But the repeated shifting of scenes is artificial as it stands, and all this distracting panel movement only exaggerates it.
Otherwise, the production is as dazzling visually as it is musically, with much credit going to Karen Brown-Larimore’s wonderful costumes. Madison Opera has scored a fine success in what has been described as a “grown-up operetta.”
The production repeats Feb. 10 at 2:30 p.m. in Overture’s Capitol Theater.
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[Editor's note: We corrected the name of the character played by Daniel Belcher from Henrik Egerman to Fredrik Egerman.]
